Lord Tebbit is one of Britain's most outspoken conservative commentators and politicians. He was a senior cabinet minister in Margaret Thatcher's government and is a former Chairman of the Conservative Party. He has also worked in journalism, publishing, advertising and was a pilot in the RAF and British Overseas Airways.

The state is failing its duties. The British people will soon run out of patience

There have been a couple of erudite reports recently that no doubt cost a great deal of money to produce, and came to rather similar conclusions. One was looking at the way in which the scale of the disorders and looting escalated, particularly in London this summer; the other at the difficulty in maintaining an atmosphere conducive to teaching in classrooms.

Their conclusion was broadly that if rules are not enforced then more and more people will ignore them. As if anyone who has ever brought up children or house-trained puppies, let alone commanded men at times of danger, could not have told us that for nothing!

So I have some sympathy for the poor clergy at St Paul’s. They have been rightly condemned for their muddleheaded response to the layabouts on the steps of the cathedral. Now the infection has spread westwards with an encampment disfiguring Exeter Cathedral.

But for years there has been an ugly encampment in Parliament Square. If Parliament cannot enforce decent conduct on its doorstep, who in office has any right to criticise the hapless clergy for their inadequate response?

Come to that, for how long has public authority failed to deal with the property thieves called squatters, or the so-called travellers who defy planning laws. Or indeed with the squalid foreign criminals and fake asylum seekers living on welfare and laughing at all attempts to throw them out, or even keep their dependants out.

What we are seeing is a significant failure of the state to observe its side of the social contract between the governors and the governed. The first duty of the state is to secure its frontiers against unwelcome intruders. The second is to uphold the right of its citizens to go peacefully about their business and go freely on the Queen's highway. The state is failing in both.

In short, laws not enforced (and that includes the Companies Acts duties on directors of banks). They are brought into disrepute and ignored.

In general we do not live in a lawless society that’s heedless of its common obligations. But the thieves, swindlers, cheats and hooligans are growing in numbers, as they go unpunished.

Perhaps it is in part a concern about the failure of the state to honour its obligations that has impelled so many decent people this year to demonstrate a solidarity across the generations at the remembrance ceremonies across the country.

I stood at the War Memorial on Friday for the civic service in the East Anglian town where I live. There was utter silence at 11 o'clock. Children, mothers, fathers, old men and young, experienced a solidarity which they clearly found comforting and profound even as many were moved to tears.

On Sunday an even bigger crowd was there to witness the military parade and then to cram into the packed parish Church. I asked one young women if she always attended. “No,” she said, “I have not been here since I was seven. This year I don't know why, but I had to come.” There were tears in her eyes.

Is there some connection between all these events? Are we unconsciously finding some common ground on which, despite our differences, the decent folk of this country can all stand and shame our leaders? I do not know, yet I cannot but wonder why all these years after the two great wars, more and more of us feel the need to come together in respect for those who fell in the wars to protect us against our enemies.

…

Oh Dear! I had not realised until taking up blogging how many self-delusionists there are wandering around unsupervised.

Now come along chaps. I did not make a forecast that Our Masters would succeed in an attempt at a coup d' état here. And I used the words “certainly not now”. But I did question who would be Brussels’ man and how would they hope to get him into office. I went on to say Brussels’ hopes rest on a hung Parliament, a Lib-Lab Coalition, and a need of help from Our Masters, who would then exact a price for that help.

I am not as certain about the outcome of the 2015 election as some of those who posted their confident forecasts. As I have written in the past I do think it likely that the Lib-Dems will be punished at the polls, but that the coalitionists will be given some sort of ticket by Mr Cameron and that some others will defect to Labour for a similar arrangement in order to survive.

Mind you, it is not just that the authors of some posts either did not read, or did not understand, what I wrote. Some of them were unaware of the coups against Greece and Italy to secure Brussels’ men into office as Prime Minister without troubling about them being elected to Parliament. Alas, I did not have a sensational scoop. It had all been reported in the papers and even on the BBC.

Happily there were a lot of grown ups who were aware of the world around us and I was glad to see that davidlindsay, peteh, biatech, chaswarner, faustiesblog, eurobot, alhamilton, Chris Wesson, randysddod, moraymint, veritas,rapscallion, boudicca, robertson_james, Owen_Morgan, tommykid and more did follow my argument well enough. I think Old Labour might have something in saying that Our Masters might prefer Mandelson (who has already sworn his oath of allegiance to them) but imposing a peer really would be a step too far.

I understand why darkseid should say, “no, no, no! Clegg installed by Brussels? It's fantasy”. All very well but until now it would have been only fantasy to imagine two coups d'état in a fortnight organised by the Groupe de Frankfort. I doubt if they could get away with it here, but if they get Spain and Portugal under their belts too their ambitions will no doubt grow.

Sadly, NonAlignedUK rather lost the plot too, saying that I was naive, stupid and absent of any ideas. I do think he should read what I have written about the initiative in drafting a new treaty which should be undertaken by the Prime Minister. He might agree or disagree with it, but that proposal is there.

Then Sam Bennet had a terrible hissy-fit saying that my blog “rockets off the scale of ridiculous”. As Jim Good wrote, he is so “last fortnight”, or as emmiem put it “Lord Tebbit described events as they happened and david_in_rome confirmed from there, ‘yes, it happened’.” I shall be kind to Sam Bennet and assume that he has had no access to the newspapers, radio or TV news since before Papandreou was replaced by Our Masters from Frankfort with Papademos.

Then although it seems that tepid cocoa has curdled and been put down the sink we have a new poison pen poster. Or perhaps the same one, calling itself lennox 10. I am grateful to soysauce1 and crownarmourer for their remarks and to steven_w who deplored these poison pen attacks (and was called a “thick clown” for his pains), but we do have to understand that it is part of the sickness. It is much the same with stalkers. We can only hope that they will receive the help which they so obviously need.

Turning again to the rational comments, I noted a maturity of thought about the prospects of a UKIP victory in 2015. There is, of course, the European Election of 2014 which, as iansboy said, could be a game-changer. General Patton, a UKIP supporter, offered some sage advice, saying that in 2015 electors should vote for the 81 group of Tory MPs, as he will do for Zac Goldsmith, even if, like him, they campaign elsewhere for UKIP.

Then rsmith advised me to defect to UKIP, but I think that pragmatist was right to say that would be but a ten-day wonder. I am sure that I can do more inside than outside the tent.

I am afraid that flyingscotsman is becoming a bit of a bore. However at the risk of encouraging him, I should say that I have said over and over again that the solution to the problem of our Parliament is quite simple. Just elect better people. Yes, it would require rather more brains and effort than ranting on the internet, but that is what has always worked in the past and could do so again now. I am glad that steven w reminded us of that article in which Clegg declared himself a “European” who believes that the “British need to be put back in our places”.

It seems likely to me that jonbw, himself a Labour Party member, spoke for many others in saying he thought I was right about the EU and the euro, that Cameron is a Blairite using Clegg as cover, and that the Eurosceptics in both his Party and mine should more often make common cause. As soysauce wrote, those who said that the euro would work still have not learned.

There is no doubt that catweazle spoke for many people in his comment on a contribution from steve_london who had said that we would be better off ruled by Our European Masters, “over my dead body”. That was our reply in 1940 too.

Lastly my thanks to pedestrian blogger for his monumental put down of david-sparks, whom he called a cause of embarrassment: “you make a fool of yourself, you are regarded with contempt.” Could not have put it better myself.